UGANDA: What makes Ugandans proud of Museveni's army? (PHOTOS)

WHAT MAKES UGANDANS PROUD OF MUSEVENI'S ARMY?

CHANGE OF GUARDS - After watching NTV Ug's On the Spot talk show that was moderated by Patrick Kamara and hosted David Pulkol, Ssemuju Nganda and Lydia Wanyoto, I am compelled to write this piece. Though the topic had been "the announced retirement of top army officers", it turned into discussing the general performance of the army.

David Pulkol is a civilian and a former Museveni cadre who was at one time heading Museveni's foreign spy agency (ESO). That position brought him closer to the security establishment thus grasping some information on the military's inner workings.

Ibrahim Ssemuju is a brilliant journalist, opposition M.P and has widely researched and distinguished himself in accurately commenting on Museveni's army. He has accumulated such insightful knowledge that he is even fit to be a Minister of Internal Security.

Lydia Mutende Wanyoto is a civilian who because of her being a Museveni regime cadre has landed a job with AMISOM in Somalia thus getting somehow closer to the Museveni army's internal workings.

The moderator, Patrick Kamara excelled in covering the Museveni army's operations against the ADF in the late 1990s in western Uganda.

Against the above respective backgrounds, the four were well positioned to give informative insights into the subject matter. While Lydia Wanyoto's submissions were in line with her task as a regime propagandist, to some extent the other three gentlemen argued out of fear. Consequently, by the end of the show the one lady and three gentlemen were in agreement that Museveni's army a.k.a UPDF/NRA makes Ugandans proud. Their contention was bases on the fact that it is comprised of educated men and women and that it has excelled in Somalia, CAR and South Sudan.

Here below, please find the partinent issues that Ssemuju and Pulkol feared to bring out:

1. Museveni's army is his personal army whose loyalty is only to him and it cannot survive beyond his presidency.

2. Museveni's army was built on a sectarian foundation and has by design not transformed into a national army. The strategic top command positions are dominated by officers from Museveni's home region while the ordinary rank and file is dominated by the "northerners"

3. The army has been used by Museveni to foment trouble in Rwanda, Congo and South Sudan thus the Great Lakes security crisis. It was found guilty of heinous war crimes in Congo and consequently Uganda was ordered to pay US$ 10b in reparations. It has been accused by international bodies of gross human rights abuses in Congo, CAR and Somalia.

4. The army was sanctioned by Museveni to commit heinous war crimes in northern and eastern and most recent in Kasese. No one has ever been punished thus proof of state orchestration.

5. The army and its military intelligence (CMI) has excelled in gross human rights abuses against Ugandans. It arrests, kidnaps, detains in Safe Houses, tortures, maims, kills with impunity. No single soldier has ever been punished for the same thus state orchestration.

6. Military personnel have excelled in staging sophisticated armed robberies. For the first time in the history of Uganda, even a commissioned officer stages broad daylight armed robbery.

7. The army has excelled in corruption, abuse of office and outright theft and diversion of own resources for personal gain. The highly protected beneficiaries are among the richest Ugandans at the expense of the the less privileged ones whose welfare situation is appalling. The lion share defence budget is also a source of funding for political patronage.

8. For Museveni's personal benefit, its management is not based on established command and administrative structures. Instead, recruitment, training, deployment, transfers, promotion, secondment, suspension, reprimand, retirement is dependant on Museveni's strategic political interests

9. It is outrightly partisan and a coersive arm of the Museveni regime (NRM). It major task is to ensure that Museveni remains in power at all cost.

10. Its cohesion is undermined by factionalism - the elite SFC Vs the regular army whose emoluments and logistical provisions also vary.

Therefore, it is visibility wrong for anyone to claim that Uganda has a national army to be proud of.

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENIS